Newby: best way to grab an expiring domain

[wednesday]

Hi,

I've had my eye on an expiring .co.uk domain since it expired 3 months ago. I was really desperate to secure the domain as I'd got a product it fitted perfectly that I want to push forward this year. Not knowing a great deal about the process or domain catching I did the following:

Firstly, I wrote to Nominet to ask them *exactly* when expired domains are available to register, in the hope that they'd be able to say "midnight on the 90th day after the expiry date" or something and I could literally sit at the computer and be first in line to grab it at midnight. They eventually told me that the exact availability date is "random, on or after 90 days". I calculated the expiry date to be 29th December.

Not being able to sit there refreshing my registrar availability checker constantly, 24hrs a day for potentially several days, I decided to take Nominet's advice and put the domain on back-order through a third party. I did this with two providers (dropped.uk and daily.co.uk - at around £35 and £40 each, non-refundable!)

I noticed when adding the back-order to dropped.uk, it said the drop date would be 31st December, which was odd given that this was 92 days after the expiry date. Where did they get this information from?

I eventually received an email from dropped.uk on 31st saying that they had failed to register the domain. I thought Daily must have got it instead, but it too failed (and just didn't bother notifying me). So I'm now about £80 out of pocket and the person who grabbed the domain wants ££££ for it. I'm absolutely gutted as I had a really good use for the domain. It's a pretty niche domain so I just don't feel it's worth ££££. No doubt it'll sit around for years unused. Gutted.

So my questions, just so at least I know I've learned something through this depressing process, are:

1. How can you tell *exactly* when a domain name will drop? Is it indeed random? How come dropped.uk knew it would be after 92 days, rather than 90?
2. What is the best way to ensure you're first in line in this situation? Is there a tool that pro's use to ping Nominet more regularly than the more well-known back-order services?

Many thanks folks.

 

[RobM]

It will drop 92 days after expiry date. Best bet is to backorder it *everywhere* to have the best chance. There are many places. Most places work on a no-win no-fee situation where it doesn't cost you anything to backorder.

 

[wednesday]

Thanks, so literally if I went to any of the common registrars at 00:00:01 on the 92nd day, it'd be available?

If only Nominet could have told me this it'd have saved so much heartache .

When I was looking for back-ordering services, most of the ones I saw (especially the big ones like GoDaddy) didn't seem to offer .co.uk back-ordering. Has anyone compiled a list of these?

Thanks again

 

[dropped.uk]

Domains can be backordered through dropped.uk without any upfront commitment. Please send a PM or use the contact form through the website so that we can help further!

 

[RobM]

No it won't necessarily be available and not necessarily at 00:00:01.
Domains drop throughout the full 24 hours on that day. It is random so nobody knows exactly when it will drop. If it is backordered or being chased personally by a tagholder it will be reregistered before the general public or non-chasing registrars get a chance. I don't think godaddy have ever caught a domain on drop have they? I never see their tag in catchlists. If it is a popular domain it probably won't be available to register before a tagholder picks it up. That is why you backorder everywhere to be the person that has it via the tag that catches it.

 

[Edwin]

It's random. It will drop sometime during the day, but neither you nor any of the drop catchers will have any idea when. Nominet don't know either as it's all done via software and random number generators - there's nobody "pushing the drop button"!

To have a decent chance of catching it, you have to backorder it everywhere. When I used to do the drops, I worked with over a dozen drop catchers in parallel. And still I missed more stuff than I caught - there are many, many private catchers who don't book domains for others.

Private catchers might also choose to devote 100% of their resources to chasing a single domain name a day whereas public catchers that catch on behalf of others might have bookings for dozens or hundreds of domains and have to split their resources accordingly.

You have almost literally zero chance of registering it manually. I won't say "zero" but the odds are lottery-winner level improbable. In other words, not worth thinking about as a serious strategy.

You also have to book it EARLY if it's a potentially interesting/valuable domain, since most drop catchers operate on a first come first served basis so if a different client has already booked with them you're out of luck. (And by EARLY I mean as soon as it expires i.e. 92 days before it drops - or even earlier if you want to gamble on a speculative booking.)

 

[Systreg]

These are some catching services who take payment after a catch is made with no prepayment:

catchdomains.co.uk (My site)
ukbackorder.com
catch.domaintree.co.uk
ecatch.co.uk
catchit.co.uk
backorder.premiumdomainnames.co.uk
domainjunky.co.uk
pfukcatching.co.uk

 

[wednesday]

This is all really helpful, thanks!

I don't think the domain was popular at all as I didn't back order it until mid December and I was the only back-order in the places I tried. Most of the other TLDs for the domain are still available too. Just a shame that dropped.uk and Daily failed and I was pipped to the post and will probably just watch it sitting there idle for years to come. Most frustrating.

I'm glad I asked though as there's a lot more competition for snagging domains than I'd expected, even if the domains themselves are often unused/wasted - it probably only takes a couple of sales to make up for the ones that sit there unused.

 

[Edwin]

There's a huge gap between £40 and £x,xxx. Perhaps you and the current owner can find common ground somewhere in the middle. Though to do so, it's best not to go on about how it's "unused" or "wasted" because that kind of talk tends to annoy. It's entirely up to the successful catcher what they do with what is after all their domain.

 

[Murray]

What was the domain?

 

[RobM]

Bear in mind that all catchers (except for certain cheats - yes you know who you are and so do nominet) have only a limited quota to check it all day. This prevents one tag from getting everything.

 

[ausername]

Wednesday.... presumably you tried to catch the .co.uk.... but have you considered checking to see if the .uk is available to register? You are now free to register this if available, because when a domain drops it loses its attached .uk rights.

.uk will eventually overtake .co.uk as the primary country code domain, so in the long run will probably be the superior domain.

Although now that you have inquired about the .co.uk the owner will probably have quickly registered the .uk...... so you ideally needed to check this before telling anybody you were interested.

I would also check this before answering Murray's question.

 

[wednesday]

Sure, sorry, I didn't mean to annoy - just frustrated I guess. I've put in an offer of high £££ but don't hold out much hope - I can only afford what I can afford.

 

[ausername]

CHECK

THE

DOT

UK

QUICK.... NOW!!!

https://www.theukdomain.uk/do-i-have-uk-rights/

 

[wednesday]

The .uk was registered by the same person who bagged the .co.uk, on the same date. It hadn't been registered before.

 

[ausername]

The .uk was registered by the same person who bagged the .co.uk, on the same date. It hadn't been registered before.

It may have been registered because you inquired about the .co.uk unfortunately. If not already registered he would have snapped that up to ensure that you didn't just register it as an alternative.

Looks like you are just going to have to play the offer - counter offer game. Shouldn't really have stated on here that you would offer high £££ though, you've just put all your cards on the table.... probably a 95% chance that domainer reads this forum and its hardly a fast paced message board.

Good luck anyway.

 

[Murray]

It may have been registered because you inquired about the .co.uk unfortunately.

Most (all?) dropcatchers will attempt to register the .uk along with the co.uk (unless the value is in the links rather than the name(s))

 

[RobM]

It may have been registered because you inquired about the .co.uk unfortunately.

I doubt it. If it was registered the same day as the co.uk it was probably at the same time. A lot of people backorder both.

 

[Systreg]

I rarely book the .uk unless it's a very good name or an LLL, same if I'm catching for myself. Got no interest in .uk's and I'm dropping most of the .uk's where I have the pairing.

 

[Edwin]

If a domain is valuable enough to backorder (and “waste” the limited amount of daily drop cycles on) then it goes without saying that the .uk should be worth having for just a few quid more. It would be very strange for somebody to catch one but not register the other (unless they were beaten by automated means and denied the pair).

Otherwise you’re leaving open the potential to be undercut almost immediately by the new .uk holder if you attempt to sell the .co.uk.